Timothy Syrota

Human beings have an inherent capacity for compassion. Too often it lies dormant, unstimulated, this despite the myriad issues worthy of concern that surround us. How can this be? Clearly depiction of suffering alone is not working. Indeed, it serves o distance us from our own compassion. Showing a Western audience dying children in Africa, this is far from our own reality, like an alien world, and may simply engender guilt. People may donate money, but this is from guilt, shame, maybe sympathy, not understanding or empathy. Certainly I recognise the need, the requirement, to document the atrocities of Gaza, Myanmar, conflict zones and human rights abuses. I have the greatest respect for those that do. But at the same time, when we see resilience, smiling in adversity, tackling hardship, when we are teachers and see the conditions under which teachers work, doctors viewing doctors, journalists viewing journalists, this  promotes empathy and respect more readily than depicting suffering alone.

In search to engage our deeper emotions, ‘art’ in its broadest sense has this capacity. As such, in approaching my work, particularly documentary work, I combine simple stories with cinematography and music, to create work that can engage an audience on many levels. Art touches our hearts whilst newspaper articles live in our minds.

Heads forget. Hearts remember.